PM to inaugurate phase 1 of India International Convention and Expo Centre on Sunday
New Delhi (PTI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the first phase of India International Convention and Expo Centre (IICC), named YashoBhoomi, in Dwarka and also the extension of Delhi Airport Metro Express line from Dwarka Sector 21 to a new metro station at Dwarka Sector 25 on Sunday.
Noting that it is Modi's vision of having a world class infrastructure for hosting meetings, conferences and exhibitions in the country, officials said the operationalisation of YashoBhoomi at Dwarka will be a big boost to the exercise.
With a total project area of over 8.9 lakh sq m and total built up area of more than 1.8 lakh sq m, it will find its place among the world's largest MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions) facilities, they said.
The convention centre, built across more than 73,000 sq m of area, comprises 15 convention rooms including the main auditorium, the grand ballroom and 13 meeting rooms with a total capacity of holding 11,000 delegates. It has the largest LED media facade in the country, the officials said.
The main auditorium is the plenary hall for the convention centre and is equipped with a seating capacity of around 6,000 guests. The auditorium has one of the most innovative automated seating systems which allows the floor to be a flat floor or an auditorium style tiered seating for different seating configurations, they said.
The grand ballroom, with a unique petal ceiling, can host around 2,500 guests. It also has an extended open area that can seat up to 500 people. The 13 meeting rooms that are spread across eight floors are envisaged to hold a variety of meetings of different scales, they added.
YashoBhoomi also offers one of the largest exhibition halls in the world. It consists of materials and objects inspired from Indian culture in the form of terrazzo floors with brass inlay representing rangolis patterns, suspended sound absorbent metal cylinders, lit up patterned walls, the officials said.
It also demonstrates a strong commitment to sustainability as it is equipped with a state-of-the-art wastewater treatment system with 100 per cent wastewater reuse, rainwater harvesting, rooftop solar panels and its campus has received Green Cities Platinum certification from CII's Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), they said.
It will also be connected to Delhi Airport Metro Express line with the inauguration of the new metro station at Dwarka Sector 25.
Officials said the Delhi Metro will also increase the operational speed of Metro trains on Airport Express Line from 90 km/hr to 120 km/hr reducing the travel time. The total journey from New Delhi to YashoBhoomi Dwarka Sector 25 will take about 21 minutes.
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11 reported killed in Lebanon as Israeli forces remain after withdrawal deadline
Mays Al-Jabal (Lebanon), Jan 26 (AP): Israeli forces in southern Lebanon on Sunday opened fire on protesters demanding their withdrawal in line with a ceasefire agreement, killing at least 11 and injuring more than 80, Lebanese health officials reported.
The dead included two women and a Lebanese army soldier, the Health Ministry said in a statement. People were reported wounded in more than a dozen villages in the border area.
Demonstrators, some of them carrying Hezbollah flags, attempted to enter several villages to protest Israel's failure to withdraw from southern Lebanon by the 60-day deadline stipulated in a ceasefire agreement that halted the Israel-Hezbollah war in late November.
Israel has said that it needs to stay longer because the Lebanese army has not deployed to all areas of southern Lebanon to ensure that Hezbollah does not reestablish its presence in the area. The Lebanese army has said it cannot deploy until Israeli forces withdraw.
The Israeli army blamed Hezbollah for stirring up Sunday's protests.
It said in a statement that its troops fired warning shots to “remove threats in a number of areas where suspects were identified approaching”.
It added that a number of suspects in proximity to Israeli troops were apprehended and were being questioned.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said in a statement addressing the people of southern Lebanon on Sunday that “Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity are non-negotiable, and I am following up on this issue at the highest levels to ensure your rights and dignity”.
He urged them to “exercise self-restraint and trust in the Lebanese Armed Forces.” The Lebanese army, in a separate statement, said it was escorting civilians into some towns in the border area and called on residents to follow military instructions to ensure their safety.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, whose Amal Movement party is allied with Hezbollah and who served as an interlocutor between the Hezbollah group and the US during ceasefire negotiations, said that Sunday's bloodshed “is a clear and urgent call for the international community to act immediately and compel Israel to withdraw from occupied Lebanese territories”.
An Arabic-language spokesperson for the Israeli military, Avichay Adraee, posted on X that Hezbollah had sent “rioters” and is "trying to heat up the situation to cover up its situation and status in Lebanon and the Arab world”.
He called Sunday morning for residents of the border area not to attempt to return to their villages.
UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert and the head of mission of the UN peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL, Lt. Gen. Aroldo Lázaro, called in a joint statement for both Israel and Lebanon to comply with their obligations under the ceasefire agreement.
“The fact is that the timelines envisaged in the November Understanding have not been met,” the statement said. “As seen tragically this morning, conditions are not yet in place for the safe return of citizens to their villages along the Blue Line.”
UNIFIL said that further violence risks undermining the fragile security situation in the area and "prospects for stability ushered in by the cessation of hostilities and the formation of a government in Lebanon”.
It called for the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops, the removal of unauthorised weapons and assets south of the Litani River, the redeployment of the Lebanese army in all of south Lebanon and ensuring the safe and dignified return of displaced civilians on both sides of the Blue Line.
An AP team was stranded overnight at a UNIFIL base near Mays al-Jabal after the Israeli army erected roadblocks Saturday while they were joining a patrol by peacekeepers. The journalists reported hearing gunshots and booming sounds Sunday morning from the base, and peacekeepers said that dozens of protesters had gathered nearby.
In the village of Aita al Shaab, families wandered over flattened concrete structures looking for remnants of the homes they left behind. No Israeli forces were present.
“These are our houses,” said Hussein Bajouk, one of the returning residents. “However much they destroy, we will rebuild.”
Bajouk added that he is convinced that former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut's southern suburbs in September, is really still alive.
“I don't know how much we're going to wait, another month or two months... but the Sayyed will come out and speak,” he said using an honorific for Nasrallah.
Some 112,000 Lebanese remain displaced, out of over 1 million displaced during the war.
